With the increasing complexity of vehicle systems, telltale indication is ever more important to apprise the driver of vehicle condition. The telltale provides visual, text, and/or audible indication of off-normal vehicle conditions or scheduled vehicle maintenance. A telltale may also be invisible to a user or not be visible under normal operation. Examples of telltale indication include those indicating current vehicle condition, such as low battery indication, and those indicating more complex conditions calculated from vehicle operating history, such as oil life. Another example of a telltale includes a Diagnostic Trouble Code (DTC).
The increasing importance of the telltale indication adds to the annoyance and anxiety of the driver when telltale indications alarm. The annoyance compounds when the telltale indication fails to reset. False indication can lead the driver to disregard the telltale indication, potentially resulting in vehicle damage.
Presently, certain telltale indications are manually reset by the service personnel after vehicle maintenance. For example, oil life indication is manually reset after an oil change. The manual reset procedure is often complex, requiring a series of steps, such as placing the ignition key in a particular position and pumping the accelerator pedal a set number of times within a given time period, then observing that the telltale indication blinks. Such complicated and time consuming procedures may be skipped by the home mechanic or forgotten by service personnel. Should the service personnel fail to perform the reset, the driver is left wondering whether the required service was actually performed, and must follow up with the service facility.
Other telltale indications reset automatically, but require a predetermined operating period in a normal operating condition before reset. For example, an improper tire inflation indication requires the vehicle be driven a number of miles after the tire pressure is changed before the improper tire inflation indication resets. The driver is left without indication for those miles until the improper tire inflation indication resets. If the tire is under-inflated or over-inflated, the driver has no indication of the improper inflation other than noticing that the improper tire inflation indication has not reset after a number of miles. The driver may disregard the indication as faulty, resulting in tire or vehicle damage.
It would be desirable to have a method and system for telltale reset from a remote processing center that overcomes the above disadvantages.